Saturday, April 26, 2008

Feeding seven

Yesterday was my weekly store run. We've had to up the budget a bit (a tiny bit) to cover more children. However, I'm still able to feed seven people for a week at around $140. We only eat out three times a week(Sunday and Thursday at lunch and Wednesday church dinner), so that covers every other meal and snack. Not too shabby.

I have tried something new that I think is going to work quite nicely. The 'ole Duggar quiver lists some family recipes. I figured I could half their regular fare and be able to feed my family with maybe a bit to spare.

Unfortunately, I found the Duggar recipes to be fairly unhealthy (lots of cream of "whatever" soups, and bleached flours and pastas, etc). So, it took just a little rethinking, and I have discovered some gems. I have reworked several of their recipes, replacing meat with beans, soy or rice milk for cream of "whatever" soups, whole wheat with bleached out foods, etc.

Last night I made the Duggar Slow Cooker Lasagna with a Christine twist, and it was GONE (so much for having a bit to spare)! I thought I would share:

Combine the black beans, spaghetti sauce, water and seasonings in a bowl (I just sprinkle a bunch of oregano all over it - next time I'll also mince some fresh garlic). In your crock pot, spread a tiny bit of the bean/sauce mixture. Then, make layers that go like this: four noodles, bean/sauce mixture, cottage cheese, mozzarella. Repeat this four times. Put it on low, and let it cook for about 3-5 hours.

I do love my slow cooker lasagna but I don't make it very often because it is cheese filled to the brim! Thank you for the recipe. It sounds very tasty and healthy indeed. I am much more likely to make a friendly dinner earlier in the day so this will be great. I get REAL lazy by 4:30ish and am tempted to serve Shan's slop surprise(which is not always reliable) if I don't think about it before crunchtime.

My whole family REALLY loved the granola bar recipe, btw. I have been afraid to make it again since I was left alone with it one day and it kept pestering me until I had to finish it once and for all! snort snort :-}

My hubs is the lasagna king, but it's a huge mess and very time consuming. I have to try this. I will still bow to the lasagna king, but if it keeps my kitchen cleaner and doesn't take hours hands-on, then I'm there! Oh, and I recently realized the yumminess of Classico. Way better than Prego/Ragu/junk. And it's been on sale for $2..can't beat that!

This is a new idea for me. But guess what we're having for dinner tonight? Just got it in the crockpot - we'll see how it goes. My kids are skeptical (they are lasagna purists) but I hope to convince them tonight...

crap i write about

years of drivel

"My story is important not because it is mine, God knows, but because if I tell it anything like right, the chances are you will recognize that in many ways it is also yours.
Maybe nothing is more important than that we keep track, you and I,of these stories of who we are and where we have come from and the people we have met along the way because it is precisely through these stories, in all their particularity, as I have long believed and often said, that God makes himself known to each of us most powerfully and personally."